Medical Alley Associationserves the individuals and organizations that comprise Minnesota's health industry by influencing policy, fostering connections and providing critical intelligence to improve the quality of health around the world.

Medical Alley Associationserves the individuals and organizations that comprise Minnesota's health industry by influencing policy, fostering connections and providing critical intelligence to improve the quality of health around the world.

Investment Profile: Cardionomic

When it comes to cardiac and neuromodulation therapies, Minnesota is a global leader. Steve Goedeke, CEO and President of Cardionomic, sees the capabilities of Minnesota’s companies and individuals as important factors of Cardionomic’s success in raising a $20M A Round.

While Cardionomic’s top-tier backers include NEA, The Cleveland Clinic and Greatbatch Medical, raising funds for the company was still very challenging. “It’s a difficult funding environment for early stage companies. Industry mergers, evolving VC strategies and the vagaries of timing can result in a small number of potential funding sources at any given moment. Strong clinical evidence, issued patents, well respected advisors and most importantly, persistence, were vital to our success," said Goedeke.

“Minnesota has a deep medtech bench,” commented Goedeke. “Virtually everything we need to be successful can be found in the local ecosystem. The pool of talented people, vendors and partners is among the best in the world which significantly reduces execution risk.”

Cardionomic’s neuromodulation technology targets improved cardiac output to treat acute decompensated heart failure. As the President of Denali Medical II, a venture-backed incubator, Goedeke knew that investors would want to see a compelling market, talented team, reasonable mechanism of action (MOA) and clinical evidence before funding the program. With that criteria in mind, “We made an early strategic decision to focus on the creation of clinical evidence that demonstrated the MOA. Towards that end, we created a 19 patient human data set for about $2M. This demonstrated capital efficiency to our current and potential investors while creating a compelling and fundable story,” said Goedeke.